Organisations from France, Germany, Italy and Spain will make use of a new software tool, ACCT, for three years.

Experts and technicians have met in France on 15-17 december 2010 in order to initiate the project that will be carried out in four European countries for three years. The farmers that participate in the “AgriClimateChange” programme will make use of a software tool, which is at the moment in its final phase of development, in order to calculate energy balances and greenhouse gases’ emissions at farms.

The objective of the meeting was to develop the software tool, making use of “Planete”, developed by Solagro, and “Less CO2”, created by the Consejería de Agricultura y Agua de la Región de Murcia, together with other studies and methodologies analysed by the members of the project. The common software is called “ACCT” (AgriClimateChange Tool) and will be available online for any farmer that would like to evaluate its farm and improve its sustainability.

The objective of the project is to identify possible agricultural measures that reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gases emissions and that increase the potential of this sector as a carbon sink. The conclusions of the project will serve as a basis to make proposals of agri-environmental measures applicable to any Member State of the European Union.